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Dealing with the Risks and Responsibilities of Landmines and Their Clearance

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Dealing with the Risks and Responsibilities of Landmines and Their Clearance Fordham International Law Journal Volume 25, Issue 5 2001 Article 4 Dealing with the Risks and Responsibilities of Landmines and their Clearance Michael Polkinghorne∗ James Cockayney ∗ y Copyright c 2001 by the authors. Fordham International Law Journal is produced by The Berke- ley Electronic Press (bepress). http://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/ilj Dealing with the Risks and Responsibilities of Landmines and their Clearance Michael Polkinghorne and James Cockayne Abstract Part I of this Essay addresses the issues of State responsibility for landmine removal. Part II discusses the various legal issues that landmine removal programs present. It does so by exam- ining: (1) the international obligations that exist; (2) the domestic legal considerations; and (3) some of the issues facing governments who wish to remove landmines by the common measure of contracting out such work to third parties. The central question Part II considers is whether and how States can transfer the risks associated with landmine clearance to contractors. DEALING WITH THE RISKS AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF LANDMINES AND THEIR CLEARANCE Michael Polkinghorne* James Cockayne** Although international humanitarian law and traditional military doctrine have set clear requirements for the 'respon- sible' use of anti-personnel mines, too often these rules have not been implemented. Research conducted on behalf of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) by military experts has shown that in 26 conflicts since the beginning of the Second World War, anti-personnel mines have only rarely been deployed in accordance with the existing legal and mili- tary requirements.' INTRODUCTION The human, social, environmental, and psychological costs of anti-personnel landmines are well documented. So too are the financial costs. A landmine that costs three to four U.S. dol- lars to produce will cost somewhere between U.S.$200 and U.S.$2000 to clear. The consequences were it to detonate before clearance are readily and tragically apparent. As the above quotation indicates, much of the damage has already been done, to the extent that vast tracts of land are al- ready peppered with landmines. Thus, while the moral impera- tive to ban or control their future installation remains critical, the removal of those landmines already laid has become urgent. On the writers' rough estimate, de-mining activities are taking place in some three dozen countries ranging from Afghanistan to Yemen. Financial and economic considerations themselves provide * Partner, Coudert Frres, Paris, France. ** Associate, Coudert Brothers, Sidney, Australia. 1. International Committee of the Red Cross, Banning Anti-Personnel Mines: The Ottawa Treaty Explained (Feb. 1, 1998), available at http://www.icrc.org/icrceng.nsf [hereinafter Banning Anti-Personnel Mines]. 2. International Committee of the Red Cross, Anti-Personnel Landmines-Friend or Foe?: A Study of the Military Use and Effectiveness of Anti-Personnel Mines (Mar. 1, 1996), available at http://www.icrc.org/icrceng.nsf [hereinafter Friend or Foe?]. 1187 1188 FORDHAMINTERNATIONALLAWJOURNAL [Vol. 25:1187 a powerful argument for governments possessing mined areas under their jurisdiction or control to implement comprehensive landmine clearance programs. For many governments, these fi- nancial imperatives are reinforced by international legal obliga- tions under the 1997 Ottawa Treaty banning the use, develop- ment, stockpiling, or transfer of mines.' Little attention has been paid to the legal framework within which landmine clearance programs exist, and in particular, to the impact of legal frameworks on the financial viability of landmine clearance programs. These programs carry with them their own costs, in particular, costs associated with the inherent risks of clearance. States that seek to contract out this landmine clearance work must first consider whether they can transfer the risks associated with the work, and/or whether they may be lia- ble for the costs of any injury that occurs during landmine clear- ance. Similarly, States that seek to transfer responsibility for landmine clearance areas to contractors working on their behalf on other projects, such as public construction, must likewise con- sider their options for dealing with these risks. For those States that are obligated under the Ottawa Treaty to finish their landmine clearance within ten years of the Treaty coming into force in each respective State (for many States, leav- ing a deadline of 2009), this is a central question, as it directly impacts the manner in which they can meet their international obligations through contractual or transactional processes. Part I of this Essay addresses the issues of State responsibility for landmine removal. Part II discusses the various legal issues that landmine removal programs present. It does so by examin- ing: (1) the international obligations that exist; (2) the domes- tic legal considerations; and (3) some of the issues facing gov- ernments who wish to remove landmines by the common mea- sure of contracting out such work to third parties. The central question Part II considers is whether and how States can transfer the risks associated with landmine clearance to contractors. As will be seen, this issue is not straightforward in the context of signatories to precursors to the Ottawa Treaty. 3. See Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction, Sept. 18, 1997 [hereinafter Ottawa Treaty]. 2002] RISKS AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF LANDMINES 1189 I. STATE RESPONSIBILITY FOR LAADMINE CLEARANCE In this Section, we examine the nature of States' obligations under international and domestic law to clear emplaced landmines. We begin by explaining what these obligations are, their sources, and their content. Next, we discuss the mecha- nisms by which these obligations may be enforced, addressing specifically the question of the likelihood of governments being held liable for the damage inflicted by uncleared mines. A. The InternationalRegulation of Landmine Use and Clearance As tools of war, the use of landmines is primarily regulated by the area of international law which governs armed conflict- international humanitarian law. This body of customary norms and treaty obligations has evolved over the last century to restrict or prohibit, inter alia, the use of certain weapons that are indis- criminate in nature or superfluously damaging in their effect, and to regulate the use of other weapons. A number of restric- tions on the use and clearance of landmines have emerged from that body of law, creating State obligations on the international level. The starting point must be that the use of landmines-in- cluding anti-personnel landmines-is legal per se. Some land- mine campaigners have suggested that landmines are inherently contrary to the basic norms and principles of customary interna- tional humanitarian law, such as elementary considerations of humanity,4 the principles of discrimination,5 and proportional- ity.6 State practice, however, suggests quite the contrary: each year, between two and five million new mines are emplaced with- out the slightest suggestion of illegality.7 In fact, the emergence of a system of treaties regulating and prohibiting certain types and uses of landmines indicates that, as a matter of customary international law, the use of landmines is permitted. 4. This is the basic norm that underpins international humanitarian law's restric- tion of the methods of armed conflict. See Corfu Channel case (U.K v. Albania), 1949 I.C.J. 4. 5. This is the requirement that military operations discriminate between civilian and military objectives. 6. This is the requirement that military operations be proportionate to the legiti- mate end sought. See, e.g., Stephen D. Goose, The Ottawa Process and the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, 1 Y.B. INT'L HUMANITARIAN L. 269, 291 (1998). 7. Friend or Foe?, supra note 2. 1190 FORDHAMINTERNATIONALLAWJOURNAL [Vol. 25:1187 State responsibility for the use and clearance of landmines is, therefore, primarily a question of treaty obligation to other States, arising from two treaties: (1) the Amended Protocol on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Mines, Booby-Traps and Other Devices ("Protocol II"), which is a protocol to the 1980 Convention on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects ("CCW Treaty");8 and (2) the 1997 Ot- tawa Treaty.9 The obligations these treaties create are those undertaken by States parties to other States parties. Neither of these treaties directly addresses the issue of victim compensation for lost prop- erty, income, life, or other personal damage. ° They provide no direct mechanism for the victims of landmines to hold govern- ments liable for the injury they have suffered. However, as we shall see, they can in certain respects shape that potential liabil- ity and the way in which it may be dealt. 1. Protocol II to the CCW Treaty Protocol II was amended in 1996 by a Review Conference to provide more restrictive regulation of the use of landmines, and, for the first time, to oblige parties (including non-State parties covered by the Second Additional Protocol to the 1949 Geneva Conventions) to clear landmines as soon as possible after the cessation of hostilities. 1 Each party to a conflict is responsible for all mines deployed by it and must undertake to clear, re- move, destroy, or maintain them under the terms of the Proto- col. Over eighty countries have ratified the Protocol, including China and the United States (who have not, however, signed the Ottawa Treaty). The Protocol also provides compliance procedures. The parties are required to take appropriate steps, including legisla- 8. Convention on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects (1980), Protocol II [hereinafter CCW Treaty]. 9. See Ottawa Treaty, supra note 3. 10. See Reynold N. Hoover, Landmine Liability: HoldingManufacturers Responsiblefoy the Cost of Victim Compensation, 10 GEO. INT'L ENVrL. L. Rv.
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